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Travel writing as a search

Three classic travel books, each written by someone who set out to see something specific and came back changed by the trip. A trip to see Persian architecture, a walk across Europe as a young man, and a trek in search of a snow leopard. The lessons ask what the journey was for, and what the writer found along the way.

Patrick Leigh Fermor's walk as a young adventure remembered

Patrick Leigh Fermor's walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in A Time of Gifts is a 1977 travel book by British author Patrick Leigh Fermor, published by John Murray when the author was 62. It is a memoir of the first part of Leigh Fermor's journey on foot across Europe from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople (officially Istanbul) in 1933/34.

by Curiate·Patrick Leigh Fermor's walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in A Time of Gifts

The Road to Oxiana: Robert Byron's journey through Persia

Robert Byron's journey through Persia and the Islamic architecture of The Road to Oxiana is a travelogue by explorer Robert Byron, first published in 1937, documenting his travels around Persia and Afghanistan.

by Curiate·Robert Byron's journey through Persia and the Islamic architecture of The Road to Oxiana

Peter Matthiessen's search for solace in Dolpo

The Snow Leopard is Peter Matthiessen's 1978 account of his two-month search for the snow leopard with naturalist George Schaller in Dolpo. What can a traveler's search and spiritual exploration reveal about seeking solace while grieving? The lessons consider how an outward expedition can also become an inward search.

by Curiate·Peter Matthiessen's search for the snow leopard in Dolpo and the Zen of a grieving traveler in The Snow Leopard

Reading paths, built to arrive somewhere

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